F&M poll: Obama by 4, as more GOP ad $ pours in

The final Franklin and Marshall presidential poll before Election Day shows President Obama with a shrinking lead in Pennsylvania.

The poll of likely Pennsylvania voters is 49 to 45 percent in favor of Mister Obama. The four point lead is within the survey’s margin of error.

F&M’s September poll had the president up by nine points.

Pollster Terry Madonna said since the first presidential debate, surveyed voters have given Republican Mitt Romney better scores when asked who they trust to get the economy on the mend.

“There we saw a huge shift,” he said. “It’s now 47 to 42 in favor of Romney, who can best fix our economic problems.”

While the president’s likability score has remained static, Romney has become more favorable among polled Pennsylvania voters. Madonna said the Republican candidate’s score was most recently at 43 percent, up from 34 in September.

The results of the F&M poll are consistent with other recent surveys. The Philadelphia Inquirer showed Obama up by six points in its most recent poll. The latest Muhlenberg College/Morning Call poll showed Obama up by five percent.

All this amid announcements of statewide ad buys from super PACs backing Romney, as well as both presidential campaigns who have spent the past few months ignoring the state’s airwaves.

Taken together, the pro-Romney groups are spending several million dollars on advertising in Pennsylvania. The most recent announcement came from the Americans for Prosperity super PAC founded by the Koch brothers, which is slated to spend $1.5 million in the commonwealth on TV spots. The Obama campaign has only promised to match the TV spending of the Romney campaign’s super PAC, Restore Our Future, which announced an ad buy of $2.1 million. But as PoliticsPA reports, there’s only evidence of a $1.6 million buy from the Obama campaign so far.